Chicken Question

[Beekissed]

Yep! For my yearly culling, I do it three nights in a row and most often you only have to insert the very tip of your finger to feel that egg. I have short fingers, so sometimes on a bigger hen I might have to go a little further than that.

I mark a leg with zip ties each night for the results for which I'm looking for, depending on the age of the hen. For 2 yrs and older they are allowed to lay every other day in peak season, but no less than that unless they are valuable to the flock in other ways~brooding is one.

If you can't even get a finger in there without lubing up and it still feels like you are pushing the vent inward when you insert, you can just not even bother with that one...she's not laying at all. A tight, dry vent is pretty much a nonlayer or too sporadic to even fool with, but sometimes an older hen that has laid big eggs for her life will have a loose, wet vent and still not be a layer any longer..she might have just lost her pucker.

Old hens tend to do that.....

 

[AMKuska]

Hahaha! You don't say @Beekissed

 

[Nyboy]

Dew you said your getting 4 to 6 eggs a day, how many hens do you have?

 

[ducks4you]

A good layer will lay one egg every 36 hours. Sometimes your hens will sync and you will get as many eggs as you have hens. They are bred to produce a great volume of eggs. Chicken breeds closer to the wild strains lay a lot less often, like 1x/week, but I don't want to keep and feed those. Just my preferences.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

@Nyboy I have 11 hens. Had to cull one from the flock early this spring. She had an impacted crop. 6 eggs is on a good day. I'm lucky to get 4 eggs in a day. Since Monty J did not find a hiding place yesterday, I'm keeping the in the coop for a while this morning to see how many eggs I get today.

 

[Nyboy]

4 eggs from 11 hens I would be frustrated too.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

So far today I have gotten my usual 3 the 4th one will come later I'm sure. I will not let them out until I see exactly how many I get. If I get 9 or 10 I will know for sure they have been laying under one of the coops.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Or that something is getting some.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

They have been pretty good about laying in their nest boxes..... so something is wrong some where.